7 Reasons to Run an Acquisitions Incorporated Style of Game in D&D
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ค. 2024
- Have you heard of the new Acquisitions Incorporated D&D book, but aren't sure what it can do for your campaign? In this video, I explain seven things running an Acquisitions Inc. style of game can do for your game. And all of them have the potential to make the game decidedly better.
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"I thought we said there was no such thing as a stupid question!"
"Yeah, but that was before you set a new standard for stupidity!"
The likes are at 101
Yeah dude we all watched the video
I think the barbarian would make a great CEO
Oh yeah he would be great as a CEO. It really clean house. I feel like lots of Executives heads would roll if the Barbarian with the CEO.
In my honest and humble opinion: This is a simple must.
It should be added how extremely EASY it is to change it from the group working for a business to the group working for a king, or a thieves guild or whatever works in your campaign. In my campaign I am using the rules as a stand in for the Duregar empire and it's an evil campaign where they are expanding on the Duergar's kingdom! :)
That is a great point! I never thought of that. That gives me lots of new options now. :-)
great point!
eched P I saw it as a way to rope a bunch of neutral evil chaotic evil true neutral lone wolf murder hobos into playing a coherent team adventure role playing games.
Absolutely. That's how I've used guilds, religious orders, and patrons (mundane/fiendish/angelic) in my campaigns over the years. It gets interesting when the party's patron wants something achieved but their religious order, say, wants it definitely *not* to be a success.
About to throw this in together with some players to surprise a new first time dm,
We're taking over a cave and starting a goblin raiders incorperated!
Oh that sounds awesome. Do these goblins that you'll be rating have tacos by any chance? Cuz I'm getting hungry.
@@theDMLair Oof I feel you there, better put taco's on the priority list!
*puts on resume
Ran... a.... company. 🙌
Believe it or not you were as successful as anybody else who runs companies. I could rant all day about Corporate America...
@@theDMLair Please do that with your player characters, (The ones that you play as for your intros.)
I've been subbed for a while and it JUST hit me that I'm impressed that he edits himself into the same frame in multiple shots every episode
You'd be less impressed if you saw how easy the editing of that is. It's the scripting and filming to make sure I have the right shots, reactions while another character is talking, etc. that's the hard part. 😁
Wow, I completely missed this video when it came out. I am currently studying an MBA and this book sounds like a super fun way to put that into practice! Thanks for the video, Luke!
It's lots of fun. Been using it with my Ancient Dragon campaign. I love it thus far.
I'd keep that barbarian in your employ, honesty is a valuable trait. Have him be the security man that sits in on all HR meetings.
HR: (Leading off with some spiel about company "family", and how much they care) ...We're unfortunately not continuing you journey on with you any further. (In the most snake-like language they can muster)
You: But my numbers have been up this quarter, and my team has been keeping up with our deliverables! Were there personal complaints?
HR: No, as I've sai-
Barbarian: They're firing you to make space for the boss' friend's son.
Yes exactly that be awesome. I think you just gave me an idea for another skit in the future. LOL
@@theDMLair awesome! I look forward to it!
That’s funny.
I laughed at "Documancer".
Also, small typo in your text. You said 'hirelings', but the text misspelled it as 'heirlings'. :)
Sweet a spelling error! I knew I had it in me. LOL I'm a horrible speller for what it's worth. :-)
No, no. Heirlings work, because they will be the heirs to your stuff when you tpk
I was wondering if that was intentional. NOW I know it wasn’t lol
@@theDMLair Is that why you don't play spellcasters?
...
Yeah terrible joke, I'll let myself out.
@@benkayvfalsifier3817 That was funny. :-P
"Since the beginning of Dungeonmastery back in 1374."
So is this Luke time, or real time?
Real-time. There's something significant about that date. :-)
@@theDMLair ...the Canterbury Tales?
Is it geometry dash? XD
@@theillethedartisan7514 I'm pretty sure that's a little more recent.
CthulhuFhtagn or that thing where there were mass hallucinations in Germany
I need to write the rulebook for running an inter-planar mercenary company...
Love the shot that suddenly jumps behind the camera.
I can see a "Angel" Wolfram & Hart situation. A "heroes" guild that is seen as helping the world but really they are destroying it slowly. The pcs can fight them or join them.
Yeah totally that would be freaking sweet. There's so many possibilities in an acq inc game I feel.
I think I might use that
Sounds like a great addition to use in Baator/Devil adventurers. They're pretty much a bureacratic corporation as well. All that is required is to reskin the Aq Inc. stuff to fit the theme :P
Eh, don’t think it would really work unless the party is evil. Otherwise why would they want to work for baator?
really underrated video for the production quality, thanks for the great info!
Thanks! You are very welcome!
"So if you could go ahead and go raiding on Saturday . . . (sigh) . . . that'd be great"
It'd be like asking them to have stay in their home base and do some stupid clean up or something instead of going raiding right? Because they want to go raiding. They don't want to sweep the floors of their headquarters. 😁
@@theDMLair "So if you could go ahead and come in on Saturday to help clean the blood off the raiding equipment. . . (sigh) . . . that'd be great"
Just backed you on PATREON Love your vids and I look forward to them every week. I am running Forge of Fury right now. The hook I am using for this party of 8 is they are an Aq Inc. group so this book was very helpful and a cool way to give awesome bonuses that the players really appreciate without making the party OP
Awesome, thanks a lot! 😁
Yes, Forge of Fury is a great adventure.
It's really cool to see this game style become an official thing. I've ran games that were similar to this in the past, because it was simple way to add a lot of structure as a dm, and kind of naturally limits unknowns outcome from your party, like you said. The way I did in the past was that my party was recruited by a new, but rapidly expanding, guild. They would get quest options from the guild, and every few quests I had them go to a new location to expand the guilds reach, set up a new guild hall in another city, ect. It worked really well, but it definitely upped the power of the group (mostly my fault for allowing them to rescue and hire an enchanter for the guild pretty early on lol)
This sounds a lot like the idea behind my organization entity that I created in the 1980's, for my 1E games, which I have disguised as a Curiosity / Alchemy shop. Specializing in quest giving for random alchemical materials with the benefit of learning how to properly dissect creatures, remove delicate parts from flora, along with the adventure. Resulting in players learning crafts like being a Field Medic or a Botanist, while at the sometime being glorified Bounty Hunters. Famous last words, "What could possibly go wrong..."
Why is barbarian always bullied, he is trying so hard to be civilized :(
You're totally right. There should be a bully awareness bit in these skits. 😂
This is great! I’m a newbie DM and I’m DMing for my older brothers as guild adventurers. I’m definitely gonna look at it.
I have done similar things using adventurers guilds. In every city in my world, and some towns there is an adventurer's guild. If the players pay dues and check in at the local guild they have certain perks and benefits. For example, they can stay at the guild as if it were an inn. They can have magic items identified at a discount as well as buy them also discounted. The guilds have henchmen t and apprentices that the players can hire to help them on adventures. There are other perks as well, but its not forced on them. They will just have a harder and more expensive time adventuring.
Very nice video! Enjoyed this.
I have actually ran or been in games very similar to this before, normally when the players start, take over, compete with, back a rival, or otherwise edge into a guild’s business or something similar.
I had not thought of giving extra class options or job related gear before, however i definitely can confirm that the home base you can improve idea works well with the players, and i definitely gave bonuses to having the base set up and making good connections and such.
Being able to have a small healing potion garden, or a weapon improvement smithy, or a library of useful tomes and textbooks can allow more in game options if they plan, can allow for more RP interactions to occur, and can make players feel like what they have done has a lasting effect for them to enjoy. It also helps them consider options other than brute force since for example befriending a voidspider might let the team begin silk&poison gathering instead of just killing it because it wanted a rare herb to settle it’s indigestion from eating a noble that had gout, but you also might need to request that it lets you take a fang (maybe you cast regen to heal it) in order to get said noble’s family off the hunt for the spider.
The quest board idea is great, i too have done that sort of a thing, normally i post quite a few options, several that they are too low level to really try even, but all have time limits (though if you take too long or change things in the world those limits may come early) and if they are not fixed in time there is a cost to failing like that. Usually an additional tougher quest comes up when the one is failed due to something bigger moving in, or the thing in question getting stronger, or helpful NPCs dying off. Some times a party may even feel the need to split up due to multiple important tasks happening at once. Or sometimes if players dont investigate/explore enough their doing a quest the easy way may lead to a scarier quest coming up later, like if they leave the bodies of the goblins in the cave alone they may feed something or become undead or a plague may happen, or if they poison off all the rooteater birds the farmers were annoyed with the local ecosystem may crash with important plants and animals dying all the while it’s predators begin targeting people. From starvation.
But keeping a running tally on a dm sheet/map of what the group has done, what their rep is like in each place, and so forth can Really make for a game world that feels alive and inter-reactive.
Great video today. This sounds awesome
Thanks!
the best parts of your videos is the character interactions .
Love the "Office Space" references in the opening skit.
I also find that the roles themselves are incredibly helpful for table management. Now there's a clear person holding the loot, taking notes of what's happened, a more obvious Face, etc.
I like the new editing style and having the second camera!
Thanks!
I'm considering running a Strixhaven game where the players are planeswalking student part timers of an aquisition inc. branch to pay there way through their courses and I'm thinking Infinite Consortium as the rival faction maybe Tezzeret as the BBEG.
Thinking of stone more current videos of yours, another advantage is that players can "recruit" other characters, i.e. try out other classes or races without having to wait for another campaign. And then they have a backup in case of a PK or TPK.
Also... Majordomo just makes me think...
"TOO SOON EXECUTUS... YOU HAVE AWOKEN ME TOO SOON?"
I had no idea what this was till now thx a lot man.
I saw the book in a Barnes and Noble and got it. Im retooling an old failed campaign with AqInc in mind.
Granted, Im having to port it to Pathfinder, but its not too hard to do so. The books a great read, and its got great stuff in it. I got it because of your vids talking about it.
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Loved the Office Space Barb rant. Cheers
I had no interest in Acq Inc but you’ve convinced me to check it out. After hearing your explanation, I can think of several ways to reskin to fit my world. Thanks so much for the insight!
My DM is running Aq-Inc alongside our Ravenloft Campaign. We just joined the franchise last session and are all level 3 characters. Gonna be fun to build it from the ground up... literally. The building we were supposed to use as our headquarters got blown up by an enemy faction, and we have to re-build it. I made the floor plan, and it's gonna be nasty if they try another assault. I also designed it around the "Private Sanctum" spell, so it's pretty defensible.
Hahaha! The Warlock's notes are priceless!
The Warlock is an evil genius. I'm glad he finally got a whiteboard.
Nobody expects the [Place Creature Species Here] Inquisition XD that needs to be put into a future campaign, can't wait for that Livestream
I've been building a world were my players would be knights in the Order of Heros, they have a headquarters, and overseers and some mandatory missions, and it sounds like I was doing this in my head already, good to hear some ideas similar to it. I had been thinking about adding perks like bonus feats, and special weapons, but that would be a lot of work. Right now I'm building maps and missions. But I'll probably check out some of these ideas in the book, or buy it before I launch this world to my friends.
I am currently in the works of making an acquisitions incorporated campaign. Good thing i just got the book 4 days ago. Now im definitely going to run a game! I am going to change some of the quests in there and change the set magic items/base upgrades/level perks so its not op and im either going to edit or flat out remove that anti random encounter magic items. I will also give them a dragon egg from the main quest they have to do to level up to lvl 3. I sent out a poll for their favorite dragon on my discord server. Thanks for the inspiration 👍
Yeah I totally hit here you dude. That anti random encounter magic item sucks. I totally Nerfwd that bad boy even though none of my players took that position.
In our group we often have to deal with conflicting IRL schedules and because of that we rarely get all players together for a game. To make up for that we have installed an advernutrers guild and everybody who is a member in that guild could take quests from the questboard there as single person or as a group of people. That way we can keep the adventures short enough to be run in one or sometimes 2 sessions so when somebody can't be arround for the next session or somebody shows up who was missing last time we can just start the next adventure with a changed group instead of finding ways for writing characters out of the adventure or players being forced to play other players characters (still happens sometimes, but much less often)
I would say that acc inc could easily be modified to work as the adventurers guild we have written into our campaign, so this might be pretty interesting for us.
I'm adding a "department of humanoid resorcery" to my game for this reason.
Sounds like a more detailed version of the patron organisations in the Ebberon setting book. I was considering doing one for my group, so looking into this book might build upon it
I love the "Office Space" reference.
Love that office space reference
That Office Space quote was fantastic!
Thanks! 😁 love that movie!
One thing you could do, is run 2 or more games in tandom, but both games are taking place in the same world, and each table is a compeating adventuring group.
Yeah, that would be fun. I can see some friendly competition there. 😁
I say give the barbarian a raise and dock the other party members pay as punishment for creating a hostile work environment.
as for the majordomo (sorry if I'm not spelling it right it's been awhile since I've seen it written)
you had it right the first time. it's pronounced how I spelt it. in the witcher 3 you can get your own house in one of the expansions which comes with a majordomo named B.B. and they pronounced majordomo the way you did the first time.
Hostile work environment. LOL that's hilarious. I love it. I feel like things are going to get a lot more hostile in my skits before they get any better. LOL
the DM Lair ha awesome. can't wait to see it in future videos. I'm predicting well here the rogue say that something is bull crap many times.
I know things would definitely get more hostile if the barbarian got that raise after the others getting docked. that'd be chaos. lol
Reminds me of a Pathfinder campaign called Kingmaker, although that one is a 6 book adventure and probably a li'l heavier on base building rules.
Ac Inc sounds pretty cool. I might call it a guild. Also you could have two or even 3 groups working for the same guild, and have away from the table stuff as well.
Run Acq. Inc. with the Ravnica book... I'm sure the options become even more interesting!
Yes, much like a guild. I think my buddy Jon is combining Acq Inc with Ravnica with success
Love the "Office Space" intro. Great movie
nice office space reference.
I actually started this type of campaign before even the book came out :D It's the Guild of Might & Magic, which employs skilled adventurers for various tasks. Having a base is great, but from my experience, this also should be discusses over session zero, because not every character concept would be willing to be a sell-sword. It may be hard for some classes to find motivation to be a part of franchise, for example a Druid. Or some kind of out-lander from a savage world - like Goliath, Lizardfolk or Tabaxi for example. But it is a great tool for DM. For me it serves as a checkpoint. If players not feeling the Arc or adventure, maybe they didn't find clues or lost someone their were tracking, it can actually end that adventure and when they return - you can point a totally new direction. I think Ac Inc gives a very good platform for home-brew campaigns, making it easier to manage them and use different modules or adventures.
Agree!
Just realized I'm planning a homebrew campaign, that sound really similar to the aquisitions incorperated
Also i just did a Ravnica/ Acq Inc game it was fun.
Nice Office Space reference.
Doing something similar to this for my next campaign, kinda a magical cold war setting, part Indiana Jones part, James Bond. Players looking to acquire, rediscover, or steal magic items and new technology in order to get an upper hand should a full scale conflict break out.
That sounds fun dude.
I'm beginning to get into DMing, by setting up various alts in other browsers while I do the DMing on Chrome to my alts as a form of practice. Next, I plan to test my knowledge by running a game exclusively for pre-existing DMs on a Discord server I'm in. Once I've figured everything out, I'll open a game to the rest of that server, and implement Acq Inc into that game and every subsequent game. I won't specifically tailor it as an Acq Inc game, I'll just make it clear that Acq Inc is available to them if they choose to start a business.
LOL, I thought you were going to get into RP-ing a business. Close, but good video anyway. I established a base for my players by providing them a cubic gate that was fixed to two out-of-the-way fortified locations and several unfortified locations that were spread out so that they could conceivably access any point in the world within several days of travel.
One of the fortified locations was a secluded mountain side stronghold and the other was a small cave not far from where they started from.
But yep, using henchmen comes in really handy when you start roleplaying mercantile companies and mining operations.
Naw, the business isn't in the spotlight. We're stilp talking D&D here. Lol
I've started incorporating the Headquarters and Majordomo into all my campaigns. I just can't emphasize enough how useful it is to have a person and a place that the players are invested in, and a spot for them to dump their gold when they get to the higher levels. I'm about to launch a campaign using the full AcqInc rules with the franchise and roles and all that, but even in traditional fantasy games I'm using some stuff from this book.
Yeah totally. Even if you're not running a full acq inc game you could port in elements of it to any game.
Cant wait to use some heirlings!
10/10 for the Office Space quote :D
You can use some of the same principles used in Acq. Inq. in a Ravnica themed campaign as well. What is a major globe spanning Guild but just a huge business?
The Majordomo? Also known as the leader of the guild, or the PC's handler, or the leader of the local "franchise"/chapter/office/etcetera of the given guild. :-)
I'm in a campaign while it's not an actually company we run it very similar to what you're talking about here, where "Grandma Tildie" is in charge. Except that we aren't even given any choices, we say what kind of adventure we want, then use our flying ship to go to a dimension where were needed that fits the criteria. Then we end the session and the DM makes an adventure that we start on next time. We just finished stopping Disney from attacking Washington DC with ex Stormtroopers they hired from a space station a long time ago in (guess what?) a galaxy far far away.
Are you guys playing Dungeons and Dragons or like Star Wars or something?
@@theDMLair We play a mix of pathfinder, D&D 3.5e, D20 modern, and probably Starfinder?
Thanks.
Aww the Barbarian is my favorite!
So this is an old video, but I'm just really shocked that I haven't come across this module before!
For my channel, I'm going to be reviewing D&D Modules, but I wanted to add a little twist to it. I decided I'll put all the modules I playtest and review into one massive campaign.
I spent months trying to figure out a setting that I can use to make my idea viable and came up with a sort of "Backrooms" plane of existence that's outside the multiverse.
I added a "Curse" of sorts that will yank players back to their home plane of existence.
In order to give agency and direct players where to go, I created the "Explorer's Guild", a lovely building ran by an Office Manager for a day labor company from the 90's who watched too much Stargate SG-1 and read too many fantasy novels.
The way I wanted to really try out the old systems, is that I made the character sheets part of the game.
Since Gold is going to be different in various realms, (Spelljammer, dark sun, forgotten realms) the idea is that this Explorer's guild will open up various offices that are run by local individuals.
Player agency as to why they want to do these missions are simply to try and find a way to break the curse that keeps them out of phase and unable to fully escape their plane.
I'm starting all this in the BECMI setting, and the simplicity of the system is hysterically due to Erin (the office manager) Staying up all night and coming up with a crude filing system.
I play a mini-game with new players where they sign up for "Explorer Status" and have to go through various obstacle courses... (the constitution roll is how many pies you can eat... one of the halflings thought that one up.)
My idea is that the players will slowly advance out into the worlds where I'm playtesting the module. I have an open sandbox game set up where the world will slowly build out as I review everything... I hope in 20 years to have mapped out and opened up all the D&D!
Heh, anyway, I am currently doing Tales of the Yawning Portal, this might be a good module to include with it... maybe get some practice working with this, and try to make a BECMI version of something for Drivetru RPG.
I'm glad there is an adventure in there. that means that AL groups can use it.
Бонжур создателям такого шикарного контента! the DM Lair
Жаль, что этому видео нельзя поставить больше одного лайка, а то я бы поставил сразу 10!
Хорошего дня и ... до встречи
I got to play part of the adventure while everything was shut down. It was fun we got to level 3 I believe before we all had to go back to work.
The barbarian is awesome!!
Is that a teleprompter you are using ? :) which one are you using ?
Might use this and make like a league of villains.
I just read through the book because D&D beyond gave it out for free recently.
Quite frankly, AI mechanics should be implemented into core game play. It could be re-skinned as a factor, guild, or other organization, and not necessarily, a franchise, but I 100% agree on how it structures the game for better group cohesion with a good reward system that has items that level up.
My DM isn't hip to it because it adds more to the game, but quite frankly I think these rules fill in the gaps. Especially for downtime.
Absolutely love that you shortened it to aq inc, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who calls it such
Yeah it's a mouthful. 🤣
It really is I was discussing attempting to dm it after only playing for half a year due to people wanting more sessions and halfway through I I just started saying aq inc haha
You don’t need a tragic backstory to work here... but it sure helps!
I am running ACQ INC in my game. But I am making them earn everything. I really like chapter 2 of the premade adventure as it a great rehash of Phandalin. With this book, the Starter Set, and the Essentials Kit one would have a really impressive sandbox kit. I myself am interweaving Dragon Heist, Mad Mage, Tales from the Yawning Portal, and ACQ INC, into a single campaign featuring RAW XP , Facing, and some of the grittier healing variants.
Love love the Office Space reference
One of my favorite shows man let me tell you. The only sad part is is that I kind of have to live that existence in my day job.
@@theDMLair maybe you should try hypnotherapy
Trying to set up a game for my 11yo, my wife, a friend of mine and his 10 yo. None of us have played before and are Planning to do it via skype/zoom but trying to schedule it around covid home learning and work has been a pain in the butt.
I'm wondering if this style might work for running a simultaneous setting for "drop in" type games?
I was planning to run a small adventure for my wife and son so was thinking the hireling and quest giver idea would make learning the basics a bit easier as a small party, also the overall structure would allow for my mate and his son (and anyone else who might fancy a game) to drop in and group up as and when they are able. As a total noob I'd love to get some feedback on the pros and cons from more experienced players
What you've just described is a Mystery Dungeon style of gaming. Mind you, I'm a newb when it comes to DnD as a whole, but I've played the PMD video games since Red/Blue Rescue Team. And what you describe is exactly like that style of gaming, except with TableTop elements. I like it as a video game, but I also don't want that "corperate style" in my gaming experience. (I've got enough of that BS in real life, thank you.)
I like those games and they can be fun every now and then, but it's still totally railroading.
Mind you this gives me ideas of how people can create campaigns for the heck of it. While the DMs HATE having their players constantly go off and do their own thing, but (most of the time) it's not such a bad thing. There are many different types of players and they each have something that they're looking for. Obviously, you're not going to please everyone and sometimes.... (looking at Puffin Forest stories here) your players will do something that they're not supposed to do AT ALL. but that's sort of the fun of it too.
Promote the Barbarian
Okay I can do that. What kind of rays do you think we should give him like the standard 6%? And should we give him any like profit-sharing or anything like that?
@@theDMLair 6% raise, but as a partner 10% of his total income is contractually obligated to the adventurers union.
The new position is for an HR management role. Duties include risk and conflict analysis and resolution, hiring/ firing of new hirelings as well as handling complaints and community feedback.
So I'm not sure if anyone mentioned it, but Verdan is actually a really good race
Im running a semi Acq inc campaign. My players are running a merc guild out of an old Haunted Mannor. Ive given them mercs and bountys for the mercs to undertake and make money for them while they are gone. Its allowed me to flesh out a cast of colorful characters (Giffs with firarms, A paladin witch hunter, a former weelchair bound cultist, a halfling theif who steals everything not nailed down, an alhoon mindflyer who is a non violent pacifist... ect) and they love it. They love trying to recruit new people and upgrading their base (i allow that with gold) and diciding what merc goes where. I enjoy running it too, which I didnt expect because i wasn't even going to buy this book but I'm so glad i did
That's a cool idea! Some NPCs for the players to manage without much extra work for the DM. 😁
@@theDMLair that was the entire point lol. Plus gives all kinds of quests, hirelings, emotional connections, and storys they make for themselves. Makes downtime fun too.
I have been trying to get my player into an Acq Inc style of game for AGES. No one wanted to be tied down to a "job". Until I connected it to Ghosts of Saltmarsh and made them answerable to Lord Neverember and he made them privateers. They love it!
Yes! Glad you found the silver bullet to get them hooked! 😁
This sounds like what I want to do with my school's D&D club. Since we have like 30 kids we're all a part of a "mercenary" group.
Yes, I bet they'd love it! It could help justify why some sessions the members of the party switch up.
I already have something similar set up like that, I just didnt know there were already rules I could use for it! Yay less for for the teacher! lol
I would really recommend you watch Matthew Coleville's video on West March campaigns. It works perfectly for clubs
@@OldSchoolGM94 I'll check it out! I have 4 groups right now of between 5 and 6 students each give or take the theater kids who went MIA since the fall play is in crunch time.
So...I am going to start running my second ever campaign, which was specifically requested to be an evil campaign. I already had a plan for the opening, everyone has become vampires, their sire is evil, turns out their evil characters helped cause some of the chaos in the 1st campaign but this also gives me something for an act 2 if they dont kill each other cause...u know evil characters. Matt Mercer, in 1 of 2 videos on dm advice of his I have personally watched said evil campaigns don’t tend to last long. With this, a corporate structure i.e., the vampire nation on a different continent that I had already come up with....christ this is game changing, I could keep this campaign going until people get bored. Hell, character dies? Home office sends a new recruit in time for next session
I'd keep the Barb, he's got potential lol
D&D has long supported the ideals of followers, and growing not just the numbers of followers to a party, including hirelings and minions, etc... BUT also the ranks and powers of said followers, minions, hirelings. It makes a great deal of sense for a GM to allow higher powered NPC's to work FOR the Party explicitly as the Players gain levels. After all, it doesn't sound legit' for a first level party to hire a Level 20 Battlemage... By the same token, at Level 15 or 18, the Party should be able to gain access and attention from NPC's above level 3 or 5.
The larger scope of this problem is that the Canon rarely offers much in the way of guidance, probably trying to allow GM's as much freedom as possible to take license with the kinds and quantity of followers and hire-on's the Parties get in their games. Unfortunately, while the freedom is nice and all, the lack of structure tends to allow too many GM's to "nerf" the available allies, and limits the scope and scale of campaigns and the agency of Players' Characters to command.
...and you end up with the vicious cyclical generation of a half-dozen murder-hobo's time and again, rather than even a singular epic series of growth, character arcs, and rising heroics from a motley bunch of misfits to the grandest army that ever trudged down into the Underdark and stormed a Drow House for justice against a common scourge.
...or anything resembling such a feat.
SO "Acquisitions Inc." stylized in a Canon Book for the Table is great for even advanced GM's to get hands on something already rolled up mechanically speaking. The heavy lifting done, all that's left is a quick flourish of Narrative to get the campaign underway, and some Players willing to try at a more structured growth beyond the basics. While some of us slightly more seasoned or venerable Groups may have our own methods, I'd hazard the look at a slightly different perspective on this style of progression can be nothing but a net benefit to the Game and an interesting addition to the dirty tricks and tools any GM would want in his "behind the screen" bag... OF course, keep in mind, this is just a casual opinion in over-view. ;o)
I think you kind of sell the book short by saying the adventure is just tacked on so they can charge $50 for it. Waterdeep Dragon Heist is $50, with none of the player options, or additional rules to help DM make more flushed out games. AI also has a ton of full color maps, and takes you from 1-7, WDH has a handful of black and white maps and take you from 1-5. Honestly I think this might be the best wotc starting adventure for new players (not new dms)
This reminds me of the Clank legacy game
Need this book, if covid doesnt stop me I'm going to be a freshman DM
Every time Luke shortens the book title, somewhere in an entirely different universe Tiffany Aching has a hiccup)
Proof of nominative determinism every John is a dm
The the Office Space town in there. I did something like this for my group and they liked it. They didn't care to much about rp they just wanted to kill monsters.
Lots of groups just want to kill stuff and loot the corpses. 😁
that's every guild hall or adventures guild ever!
So has anyone watched this with the TH-cam provided CC? If not, Luke, you might want to check it out lol. It's spicy.
someone in the many comments had to have caught the office space movie quote/reference loolz
Wait a second... that villain idea is the plot of pokemon mystery dungeon!
Seriously? Lol